Giuseppe II of Monaco
Eary Life Giuseppe was born at Prince's Palace in Monaco-Ville, Monaco on November 4, 1909, during the reign of his father Philippe III of Monaco. His mother of Princess Alice of Monaco and Denmark (later Queen consort of Monaco), the second and only-surviving daughter of the Prince Wilhelm and Princess Josephine of Vendsyssel. His grandmother was Queen Augusta, the eldest child and only daughter of Philippe II of Monaco. Marriage In a time when royalty were expected to marry fellow royalty, it was unusual that Giuseppe and his brother Phillipe IV had a great deals of freedom in choosing a prospective and elegant wife. An infatuation with the already-married German Entrepreneur Sophia Wälkenhörst, came to an end in May 1933 when the King, with the promise of the dukedom of Monaco, persuaded Giuseppe to stop seeing her. That year, he met for the first time since childhood Princess Martha of Monaco and Navarre, the fourteenth child and sixth daughter of Prince Constatine II of Prussia. He became determined to marry her. She rejected his proposal twice, in 1934 and 1935, reportedly because she was reluctant to make the sacrifices necessary to become a member of the royal family. In the words of Princess Martha's mother, Giuseppe would be "overjoyed" by his choice of wife. After a protracted courtship, Martha agreed to marry him. World War II Monaco's neighboring country France where the Royal Family's allied with has fallen under the Great Depression due to the financial collapse in America in the year 1929. Giuseppe II was sent by his father to aid France's economy finances. In 1929, France's unemployment rate was 7.3% and six years later it was at 17.5%. In 1940, after World War II started, Germany unexpectedly invaded France. Giuseppe II and The Royal were advised to leave the family retreat in Paris since the Nazi's were quickly approaching. On June 22, 1940 Giuseppe II's father Phillippe III and the National Assembly surrendered themselves to the Nazi's while the royal family secretly managed to flee to England On 10 July 1940, Hitler arrested Phillippe III forcing him to abdicate the throne and took to prison in Berlin making Hitler the Fuhrer of Germany, Poland, Austria, Czech, and France. Versailles' furniture and wealth was all stripped away from the royal retreat when Hitler invaded. The rest of the royal family was let go to the Buckingham Palace in Westminster, London, UK. Princess Alice was scared for her husband and kept asking if she could write to him but the Nazi's kept intercepting her letters and sending them to Hitler instead of her husband which caused her suffer mental and physical depression. On September 3, 1945, They happily reunited with his family after the monarchy of Monaco was restored by the allies in favor of Giuseppe II's father, the previous King Philippe III. Death In December 1953, King Giuseppe II's father Philippe III of Monaco died. A few years before the wedding, his oldest daughter Princess Valentina was due to be married to Prince Oscar, of Monaco in London. But Instead her marrige became closely attached to the family's biographist Nicholas Chapet who would later become the Prince Consort in 1961. On October 21, 1966, Giuseppe II, Martha, their son Maxwell and Giuseppe II's nephew Prince Oscar, of Monaco left Monaco for Paris at a winter retreat, where they planned to attend the christening of his granddaughter Princess Eleanor. The Retreat they were staying in caught on fire and immediatly bursted into flames, killing all four royal family members in retreat except for his daughter Princess Valentina, his brother Philippe IV, his sister-in-law Princess Abigail, her grandmother Princess Alice and his three grandchildren survived. Valentina was 29 years old at the time of her father and mother's death, and the remains of her brother and her cousin were found outside the Retreat entrance; a French official enquiry concluded that the cause of the fire was from an unextinguished cigar that wasn't put out from a smoke break. Giuseppe was buried with his wife, son and his nephew in Paris, the traditional burial place of Queen Valentina's family. Valentina's uncle Philippe IV of Monaco and her aunt had became her five children's martial grandparents. However, Philippe IV died eighteen years later from Pneumonia in 1984, and is buried with his wife and son. Giuseppe was the first of Philippe III and Princess Alice's children to die.